Mikasa Ackerman - Why She is the Best Attack on Titan Character

Updated on January 13, 2014

Mikasa Ackerman | Source

Who is Mikasa Ackerman?

For those who don't know who Mikasa is, let me give you a quick introduction. Mikasa Ackerman is the female protagonist of the very popular anime called Attack on Titan. She is one of the stand out characters in the anime. She is cool, calm, composed and is also a highly skilled fighter.

Please keep in mind that if you are reading this, you know that there are going to be spoilers in the article, so please stop reading from now on if you don't want any plot spoilers.

Reasons Why She is the Best

1) She is one of the few female protagonists that is not reliant on the male protagonist.

If you ever watched mainstream anime, you will notice that the female protagonist often fit into one of these roles:

Damsel in Distress

This role is very prominent among many anime that has a female lead. They always need to be saved by the male leads. I can already give you some examples below:

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Kotoko from Itazura na Kiss | Source

Suguha from Sword Art Online | Source

Orihime from Bleach | Source

And Boobies

Of course these damsel of distress roles won't be complete without the blatant fan service which comes with a huge serving of over-sized boobs that can break your backbone in real life.

Sugaha from Sword Art Online is pretty much just fan service and awesome development in her boobs throughout the anime. She is useless without her boyfriend.

While Bleach's Orihime does have some healing power, she for the most part needs to be saved by Ichigo.

Kotoko from Itazura na Kiss is clingy and a complete airhead.

When you watch too much anime with these kinds of female leads, it gets pretty boring. However, that is not the case for Mikasa though.

2) She is highly skilled in combat

Now, you do see some butt kicking girls in some anime, but I cannot mention there are too many out there. Clare from Claymore and Revy from Black Lagoon comes to mind. We can also now add Mikasa into the list.

If you haven't already, check out this video that is part of the anime:

3) Mikasa's Interesting Background

Her childhood is rather tragic. Her parents were killed at a young tender age. The interesting part was that she was quiet and doesn't look that special until Eren actually told her to fight back against the assassins that killed both her parents. Something inside of her clicked and she has been a beast in the show ever since. Her motto has always been "If I win, I survive". That is definitely true in her case.

4) The Epic Speech

In episode 7, she gave an epic speech that rallied the entire team to fight against the titans. Her speech included taunts, inspiration and aura of confidence. She then proceeds to fight the titans after the speech. This really prompted the entire squad to get fired up and channel their will to combat the titans. For me, it was quite a magnificent scene.

The Epic Speech from Mikasa Ackerman

Mikasa's Flaws

While she can be a valiant fighter, she also has her flaws as well. One of the main weaknesses she had was she was always over protective of Eren. That is understandable because he and his family are her only close family that she has after the death of her parents.

Because of this, it does get a little annoying that she always finds a way to "latch" onto Eren in every way she can just to keep Eren safe.

The other thing that I see that can be improved for Mikasa as a character is to develop the romantic relationships in the anime. As of right now, there are very vague signs that Mikasa actually likes anyone. Maybe the writers want to keep romance to the minimum since this anime is more focused on fighting and survival. However, I wouldn't mind a little bit of romance plot for her.

Conclusion

With all the points mentioned above, this concludes the awesomeness of Mikasa. She is a well rounded character with some flaws, which makes her an interesting character to follow. Thankfully, the anime has not yet finished and we will get to see more of her in the last 5 episodes.

Hopefully, we will get to see more of her butt kicking skills against the titans!

Comments 2 comments

In the manga chapter 50, she shows a romantic interest. You'll be surprised yet not surprised at who it is. She shows subtle signs of interest in the anime that most people will misconstrue until reading the manga.

understand 23 months ago

True. I hate how some people say she's OP, but look at Levi he is also OP. Like seriously stop hating on Mikasa just case she's female.